Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran
Originally co-produced with HOME in association with Traverse Theatre. Co-commissioned by Diverse Actions, Theatre in the Mill, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Battersea Arts Centre and Bush Theatre.
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A play and digital experience about the growing global gap between the rich and the poor, and the feeling that everything is falling apart…
Show info
A project that began life as interactive theatre, before becoming a digital theatre film hybrid in lockdown.
While the majority of Iranians live under an oppressive dictatorship, the children of the country’s elite live out their excessive and extravagant lifestyles on social media. Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran is a dive into a world of drug-fuelled parties, fast cars and hyper-consumerism.
The gap between the rich and poor is getting bigger and bigger around the world. Social media feeds and accelerates this ever-widening divide. In the global south we see the children of elites and post-colonial dictatorships, flashing cash, dollar signs, Bollinger and infinity pool holidays while the wider population suffers under sanctions and dictatorships.
Like any late-night internet binge, we start by scrolling through Instagram, but before we know it, we are taken on a whirlwind journey from revolution, to imperialism, to the entropy of the universe. It is darkly comedic and deeply revealing. It’s a play about entitlement and consumption, about how digital technology is complicit in social apartheid and gentrification. It spotlights the human problem of what successful and brutal people do with their coddled and useless children. It is the sequel to the award-winning, The Believers are but Brothers, and the second part of a trilogy of plays about how digital technology, resentment and fracturing identity are changing the world, concluding with Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World.
Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran previewed at Theatre in the Mill, Bradford, before opening at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 2019 and transferring to HOME, Manchester, the same year. When COVID dynamited the planned international tour we created a new digital version of the project for online audiences. It was an official selection of Sundance Film Festival 2021 and played in the Public Theatre’s Under The Radar Festival. It streamed around the world, including Sydney Festival, William and Mary University, Le Carrefour International de Théâtre and Electric Dreams Festival. It was created with support from Norfolk and Norwich Festival and Battersea Arts Centre.
Watch the full show of Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran on Digital Theatre +
The team
Partners
Digital production supported by Battersea Arts Centre, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and Arts Council England.
Original production co-produced with HOME, Traverse Theatre and Bush Theatre.
Co-commissioned by Diverse Actions, Theatre in the Mill, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Battersea Arts Centre.
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Awards
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“Riveting – breaks all the rules of theatre”
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